E8600, EP45T-Extreme Help
 

Hi all, let it be known that I am somewhat of a noob right now when it comes to OC'ing so bare with me :), I seem to be having some issues with my current setup. Specs:

Intel E8600
Gigabyte EP45T-Extreme
Transcend DDR3 1333 2GB CL9
ATi Gecube 4870 512mb
PSU same as in sig

I picked up the motherboard a few days ago, the board that I originally bought was the Rampage Formula, unfortunately that is now late by 1 month so I picked this board up to pass the time :D

I finally received a decent enough cooler to run the system, a CM Hyper TX2:laughing:. Currently I've got my system out on my bench table. I decided that right now I can try some FSB clocks and see what happens while I wait for some LN2 goodies to arrive. The board clocked really, really well, eventually topping out at 595Mhz FSB @ 1.64V

Link

This was all last night. I thought why not and cranked up the voltage to 1.8V (highest the board can go) and tried it out. Unfortunately it couldnt break 595Mhz, so I stopped. The 1.8V run was done once so I thought I couldnt do too much damage. I got up this morning with the intention to see if I could try anything to get to the magic 600 mark. This is what I was met with @ 570Mhz 1.6V

Link

I can assume that what happened wasnt good, so I nudged it down and decided to try to run my CPU @ 4.6Ghz to try and get some SuperPI runs in. No matter what I tried the system would always restart, no matter what FSB or voltage. I even tried 1.52V @ 4.5V and nothing. So now I'm worried, cause I think I might have damaged the board doing those suicide runs. Before I managed to clock my E8600 @ 5.0Ghz at 1.52V on my old Maximus Formula (very unstable), so this CPU can do way more.

Can anyone help me pinpoint the problem with my FSB clocks and just plain CPU speed? I'll try run the CPU on my Rampage when I get it, it should be in on Monday I hope. But anyone have any ideas?

Also the board doesnt have the proper NB cooling, link, could that be a reason for some of the problems?

Just remember, I'm fairly new to this, I've had a few guys point out that I shouldnt try anything above 550Mhz on air, unfortunately that was after the benching:blush:, but other guys are saying its encouraging to see scores like that, so I'm at crossroads:Dizzy:

You tried 1.8v on air? That 2nd link looks to be in 16 bit. I know on my 790 sometimes whan I pused it too hard it would do that. What are your goals and expectations? Also have you tried pulling the CMOS battery for a few hours and start back over new again?

Sounds kinda like what my qx9770 did while it was on its way to the grave. I don't think the board is damaged, I'm leaning toward the cpu. YOu have a spare cpu to test out?

i got that board on teh table right now... if only the controller on teh phase wasnt being stupid i would be benching now...

It definitely sounds like you gotta cpu issue my friend

I've been told that was a bad idea:D, I was told that I could do 1.6V to 1.7V so I thought why not, I'm new to this thing so I wasnt really sure.

I dont really have any goals at the moment, I just wanted to see what this board could do on air. I bought this board for an absolute steal, so I dont mind if it fails on me.

CPU wise, its still under warranty. I dont really have a spare CPU right now, so I cant test it further :), what volts should I be running on air throught the north bridge?

The reason I tried this now is cause I'm getting my CPU pots this week and I just wanted to get a bearing of what the board can do. I'm still learning:Dizzy:

No guts, no glory they say. If you watch ur load temps at xMhz and xVoltage, you'll be able to see how much headroom you have left for voltage. Once you start trippin the cpu-s thermal protection, you should back off till u can get colder.

I'm not saying u didn't take the board with the cpu or vice versa, both could be damaged but until you get another cpu to rule out the board or another board to rule out the cpu, its up in the air. And on "Air" its toast at 1.8v

So what is the threshhold for temps on the northbridge? And volts? I've never really played around with the northbirdge so I'm not really sure.

Both the board and the CPU are still working fine, so I'll back it off until I get the LN2 stuff. I'll try it one more time and see what happens :)

OK so after playing around a bit I managed to hit this @1.6V Northbridge:

Link

I'm told that 1.6V is OK for air :Whistle: so it looks like the damage is minimal, but this is incredibly strange compared to what I was having before. I also decided to check if the CPU would clock as high as it did, after a few runs I got this:

Link

So I take it the board or the CPU didnt suffer too badly?

good to see its running better for ya... this board has some strange quirks.... starting with voltage

I tried to kill a Core2 E6300 by zappng it with 1.8v on air. I bought it just to see what it was like to toast a CPU. It didn't die, and is still working in one of my nieces computers. It didn't appreciate the 1.8v abuse, and a CMOS clear was required to get it back on it's feet several times. Like Supes says...no guts no glory. Besides, we all enjoy the hair-raising and often gruesome tales of CPUicide....so keep 'em coming.